Lily Tomlin, Morgan Fairchild and Ben Stiller have led tributes to “one-of-a-kind” actor Dabney Coleman following his death aged 92.
Coleman made his career playing comic villains, petty bosses, and villains in films like 9 to 5 and Tootsie, as well as playing Commodore Louis Kaestner on Boardwalk Empire.
Lily Tomlin, who starred alongside him in 9 To 5 with Jane Fonda and Dolly PartonHe said, “We just love him.”
In her post on X, the actress shared a photo of her character Violet Newstead dressed in a Snow White costume alongside a tense-looking Coleman as her selfish boss Franklin Hart Jr.
Morgan Fairchild, star of Falcon Crest and Friends, described Coleman as “great.”
“I’m so sorry to hear about the passing of the wonderful #DabneyColeman,” she wrote on X alongside a black and white photo of them together.
“We dated for a bit in the ’80s and I loved him. This city has lost something unique!”
Coleman “peacefully and exquisitely took his last earthly breath” at his Santa Monica home on Thursday, his daughter said in a statement Friday on behalf of the family.
“My father designed his time here on Earth with a curious mind, a generous heart and a soul burning with passion, desire and humor that tickled humanity,” he said.
“As long as he lived, he advanced this final act of his life with elegance, excellence and mastery.”
Zoolander and Meet The Parents actor Ben Stiller praised Coleman for paving the way for character actors.
“The great Dabney Coleman literally created, or defined, really – in a unique and singular way – an archetype as a character actor.
“He was so good at what he did that it’s hard to imagine movies and television of the last 40 years without him.”
Coleman with Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton and Jane Fonda in 1980 Credit: Ralph Dominguez/MediaPunch/IPX
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Coleman starred in several films and television series in the 1960s, then made her breakthrough as a corrupt mayor on the satirical soap opera Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, in 1976.
His film credits include a computer scientist in WarGames, Tom Hanks’ father in You’ve Got Mail, and a fire chief in The Towering Inferno.
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He won a Golden Globe for Best Actor for The Slap Maxwell Story and an Emmy for Best Supporting Actor in Peter Levin’s 1987 legal drama Sworn To Silence.
Coleman also won two Screen Actors Guild Awards as part of the cast of the crime drama Boardwalk Empire and received Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for his starring role in the NBC comedy Buffalo Bill.
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